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Sunday, September 27, 2009

I am never comfortable with scheduling blog posts to go up while I am away playing working. Oh yes…this conference is maximum work: all that shaking hands, exchanging business cards, hugging, eating, discovering, laughing, all this pretty much on loop. Tough job. Alright, so you don’t buy it. Wouldn’t either (check on Twitter) What you can believe is that my dear and better half is certainly enjoying the last bit of this month Daring Bakers’ challenge, Vols Au Vent and other puff pastry based items.

I remember back in the 80s when these were the hottest appetizers on restaurant menus, at cocktails parties, often topping over with cream and rich fillings. As a child I did get my share of them, happily volunteering my tastebuds to my mother’s latest puff pastry creation. I often associate these with memories of Christmas dinner, with a house filled with cousins, parents and pets, each of us sliding our fork in a pillow of layers upon layers of puff pastry, letting my grandmother’s morels, sweetbreads and cream filling ooze out on the plate. Yes, I just closed my eyes and sighed just now….

As much as I would have loved to recreate that particular food memory, sweetbreads and morels are pretty hard to find this time of year in my parts. Thus, I pretty much stuck to sweets for this challenge with a little savory diversion as shrimp season is in full swing here in South Carolina.

I started by divided the recipe in half and making one chocolate while the other remained plain. Having made mille-feuilles many times here and having hosted a Daring Baker challenge including puff pastry, I was really happy that we had to do something else this time and it had been a long while since I had last made vols au vent.

We go shrimping just about every other day lately and my freezer and fridge are bursting. Friends come over right now and leave with a couple of pounds of shrimp and a couple of vols au vent. The savory rounds were filled with soft fresh goat cheese whipped together with dill, lemon zest, salt and pepper then topped with a steamed shrimp and garnished with capers .and dill springs. So easy and so fresh! Makes me want to keep a dozen of these ready in the fridge at all time.

My brain is on chocolate and caramel lately so once the chocolate vols au vent were baked and cooled, I filled them with a salted caramel mousse. I know. I am so predictable. “Yep!” is all I have to say about that. With a huge smile on my face of course. These were just perfect. The bittersweet cocoa powder coming through from the pastry mixed with the sweet and creamy caramel….oh that was good!

I still had a lot of lemons (in frozen juice form by now) from that case that fell on my lap a couple of weeks ago and so I filled the plain vols au vent with a tart lemon curd mousse and topped them with kiwi, nectarine, and strawberries. A little burst of summer still since it won’t feel like Fall for a very long time around here.

I did play with the scraps of dough a bit and made what Bill called Tiramisu Pear Tarts. The chocolate puff pastry was rolled thin and topped with a mascarpone marsala filling and thin slices of pears. I have to say these go down way too easily with an after dinner espresso! Trust me, they are all gone.

It’s good when everything is a bit crazy to be able to rely on a technique that you have done many times but I did enjoy playing around this month. If you take care of your first two turns when making puff pastry, you are set to go. These are crucial. Make sure to keep your butter pliable. Firm and it will no roll and will tear into your dough. Too soft and it won’t layer as you fold but create pockets and puddles at the bottom of your oven. Once you get the first two turns, you can pretty much put your brain on cruise and keep on.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.Vols Au Vent:

Notes: I will update with all the recipes for the fillings when I get back from BlogHer Food 2009.

Mixing the Dough:Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them. Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.) Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps. Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square. To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!). With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn. Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns. The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-VentYield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)-your filling of choiceLine a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting. (This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.Fill and serve.*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Even though I'm sitting across the hotel room from you, I have to say that your DB challenge is perfection (as always, but that is not to diminish your artistry every time). I'm glad you were able to post your challenge and then come drinking and dancing all night tonight! I'm sure you'd still be going if they hadn't run out of wine - ha!! xxoo

I was wondering if all you ladies were rushing back to hotel rooms to post or actually had the forethought (and time!) to have it completed and scheduled. Well done! I'm impressed (both with your posting and your fabulous array of puff pastry variations!) Beautiful as usual, Helen. :)

These look beautiful, like I knew they would. Especially liked the sweet ones.You want us to believe the conference is hard work that you're not enjoying? I saw your Twitter conversations, but will believe you if say so! :)And thanks for the advice with butter, it worked.

Wow, these all look so beautiful. How jealous am I that you go shrimping almost every other day? You had me with the chocolate and caramel. Pls.post the recipe for those pear slices when you are back. They look heavenly!

I always look forward to coming and seeing your DB post. I love how creative you are! As usual, you did not disappoint! Wish I had been able to be in SF with all of you guys. Next year! (Fingers crossed.)

What a treat! I'll be honest, Vols Au Vents were only ever savory in my house growing up and never made from scratch. Chocolate Vols Au Vents are a complete revelation to me ;0)I'm hoping one day I'll be as adventrous in the kitchen as you are!

I would happily eat the screen for this post after only hotel and airport food today. YUM! BlogHer was fun and it was nice chatting, even though I felt like such a dork asking if you were Helen when I saw you in SF airport upon arrival.

I shouldn't be surprised that your vols-au-vent look so beautiful, everything you make and photograph always does. I have never seen chocolate puff pastry, but it seems like something I would like. Thank you for a new and creative idea.

What my eyes keep going back to are the pear tarts with the chocolate puff pastry - how divine. I think I need to take a trip soon to Shem Creek, we love to go eat there when we stay in Charleston. Why don't I have any weekends free any time soon? Whyyyyyyy. :)

Your puff pastry is gorgeous, as I expected. Too funny though, watching you finish your post up in the middle of the cocktail party :) And given my love of coffee + tiramisu, the tiramisu pear tarts sound absolutely fabulous! It was wonderful meeting you this weekend, and I hope you're still having fun there in CA!

Hmmm, why am I not surprised that your V-a-V look so stunning?!! ;) They look so delicious!! And the shrimp...if I could just yank 'em outta my screen! And the Tiramisu Pear tarts...what an excellent idea. Helen, you're a genius!

And thanks for tips on the crucial 1st two turns. My center was kinda raw, and I think on my 1st 2 turns the butter did tear into my dough...could that be it?!

You ate vol au vent with morels, sweetbreads and cream cooked by your grandmother as a kid? Moi aussi!! Just had a major flashback. :) I think we have been living some parallel life growing up. Somehow.

The most exquisite job as usual. I consider myself a decent baker but I am terrified of making puff pastry. Wish I could fly you out for some lessons. It was such a joy to meet you in SF. I hope the rest of your trip is restful and wonderful.

I must confess, I didn't grow up with puff pastry as many of you did (I'm pretty sure we served chicken a la king in toast containers or timbales). I'm sitting here looking at your gorgeous creations thinking I have to make up for that!!

I am so glad that I happened upon your blog through a link from Pioneer Woman. First of all your food photography and styling is remarkable! I cannot wait to go through your archives and see what other goodies you have come up with. I was drooling over the chocolate puff pastry!

Wow... you are incredible. What great ideas, and what a beautiful presentation! I'm sure that the taste was just as awesome... kudos (and tell your hubs I'm insanely jealous of all the yummy things he gets to eat)!